SI predicts Birds will miss playoffs

Eagletarian Blog

Tis the sesason for prognistication -- the Daily News predictions will be coming later this week -- but we are always interested when the rather large Sports Illustrated NFL preview lands in the mailbox. That happened yesterday, with a big piece about quarterbacks on the cover.

Inside, SI's Peter King predicts that the Eagles will go 9-7, finish third in the NFC East and miss the playoffs.

King has Dallas at 12-4, the Giants at 10-6 and then the Redskins in last place at 6-10.

He has both NFC wild card coming from the NFC North, with the Vikings and Packers -- both at 10-6, behind Chicago's 11-5 -- making the postseason. Atlanta (10-6) and Seattle (9-7) round out the NFC field.

King projects the Bears will represent the NFC in the Super Bowl and lose to -- who else? -- the Patriots in Miami.

As for the Eagles, here is the analysis about the Birds, although this was not written by King. "After facing the tough AFC North in '08, against which Donovan McNabb had a 65.6 passer rating, Philly gets the AFC West, in which all four defenses ranked in the bottom 10. Throw in some suspect NFC South secondaries, and McNabb should exceed last year's career high of 3,195 passing yards.The juiciest game on the schedule? Week 13, when Michael Vick returns to Atlanta."

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